Fatimid Caliphate

The Fatimid Caliphate was a Shia caliphate that ruled Egypt, North Africa, and the Levant from 909 to 1171. Founded by al-Mahdi Billah as a small Muslim dynasty in Tunisia, the Fatimid caliphs claimed descent from Muhammad's daughter Fatimah bint Muhammad, and the Fatimids expanded from Egypt to the rest of North Africa. In 909, the Fatimids conquered the Aghlabids and their capital of Raqqada, and in 921 the Tunisian city of Mahdia became the new Fatimid capital. In 948, they moved the capital to al-Mansuriya (near Kairouan), and in 969 the Fatimids conquered Egypt, which became their new home base. The Fatimids founded the city of Cairo in 969, and the ruling class was formed from the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam, spreading Shi'ism throughout its empire.

The Fatimids offered religious tolerance to Christians, Jews, and Copts, and the Berbers helped in developing the military and political levels of the caliphate. However, the late eleventh and twelfth centuries saw the Fatimid Caliphate decline, with viziers such as Shirkuh and Shawar competing for power in the 1160s. The Fatimids lost Jerusalem and the Levant to the crusaders from the 1090s to 1150s, and the crusaders intervened in Egyptian politics in the 1160s, fighting over control of the viziers against Nur ad-Din and the Zengids. In 1171, the Zengid general Saladin conquered Egypt for the Turks, but he seized power for himself, and the Fatimid Caliphate was replaced by the Ayyubid Sultanate, a Sunni Kurdish dynasty.